Mom, Let's Talk / A brand-new batch of cell phones takes aim at kids as young as 5 (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_33/b4046406.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily) -- BusinessWeek, 2007-08-13
Okay, it's off to first grade. Got the pencil case, lunch box, and...cell phone? Yes, with companies marketing calling plans to "tweens," ages 8 to 12, it was only a matter of time before cell phones found a place on their younger brothers' and sisters' back-to-school lists.
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Of the kiddie models available, Walt Disney's (DIS ) Disney Mobile phones most resemble typical handsets, but the company sells accessories such as cases decorated with Tigger the tiger from Winnie the Pooh. The phones range in price from free (with the purchase of a calling plan) to $200 for a fancy model with Bluetooth, a camera with still and video capabilities, and other features.

Disney's calling plans, which are far more elaborate than competing services, start at $25 a month for 200 minutes for an individual child. Contracts run two years. The "call control" feature lets a parent preselect, by the day and time, when the child can make or receive calls. That means you can disable the phone during school hours, although you can select a few "always-on" numbers that can be dialed in an emergency. The "family monitor" feature lets parents preset how many text messages or downloads the child is allowed per month.

As a parent, I've been watching the cell phone phenomena evolve with kids at my local (fairly affluent and reasonably safe) elementary school.

I have the following observations:

1) Having a cell phone is a status symbol for kids, first and foremost.
2) Busy parents often give kids a cell phone to provide themselves with a 'security blanket' of comfort, thinking that if a kid has a cell phone, they are instantly in touch with those who can help them. (They haven't considered what happens when the child *isn't* at that friend's house or wherever they're supposed to be or when they can't reach the child because the phone is off. Big uh-oh there.)
3) Cell phones are now a substitute for child care and a partner for latchkey kids.

By the time kids--mostly girls at our school--hit fifth grade, the "I have a cell phone and you don't" social snub begins in earnest. If you have a cell phone, you're cool. If you don't, well, duh, what rock did you crawl out from?

I have watched parents--who I have thought were good, responsible parents--hand over a cell phone to a fourth or fifth grader, with the instructions to call them when they arrive at school or when they arrive at the library (or their friend's house or wherever) after school. I've seen these same parents rush to school to check on their child--seeming even more frantic than their usual getting-to-work schedule because the child forgot to call them or turn on their phone. OK, it's an electronic leash with some limitations. Previously, these kids would have gone to an after-school program of some sort, something structured, with adult supervision.

Perhaps kids who go home unsupervised and call their parents via cell phone are fine for a few hours in a general circumstance. But what happens when something unpredicable happens? What will those kids do, for example, when there's an earthquake and the parents aren't able to get home or in touch with those kids for....hours? days?

I can only imagine that now, even younger kids will be let loose for hours after school with this electronic babysitter, be more distracted at school because of their phones, and drive the social wedge even farther between the kids with phones and the ones without. Will we have text messaging to cheat on tests in second grade now? One can only imagine.

My, I'm cheery today.

I was at a Girl Scout leader meeting tonight where camp employees were bemoaning the number of parents who violate the no cell phone rule. Cell phones don't typically work at our camp anyways, it is in the boonies, isn't that the point of camp? I remember going to camp for a week as a kid and my parents were lucky to get one post card form me.

I don't think that just because you buy a cell phone for your child, that makes you a bad parent which is what some of this is implying. Yes, if you use a cell phone instead of responsible parenting, that's a bad thing.

However, I got my oldest daughter a cell phone once she hit middle school. The main reason was a scare where she was left at a church meeting(a friend's parent was supposed to drive her home and forget and left her there) and ended up having to get a ride from someone she and I knew and trusted but there was an hour window where we didn't know where she was. A very scary situation. The phones were locked up at church, our friend who drove her home didn't have a cell on her and stopped at the grocery store on the way home.

I will get my younger daughter a cell phone this year as she goes into middle school also. It's not a substitute for good parenting but it is a personal parenting decision.

I don't think that just because you buy a cell phone for your child, that makes you a bad parent which is what some of this is implying. Yes, if you use a cell phone instead of responsible parenting, that's a bad thing.
[snip...]
It's not a substitute for good parenting but it is a personal parenting decision.

I completely agree with you. It's absolutely a personal parenting decision. But I personally think that giving a child a cell phone because they *have* to have one in order to be cool or keep up with their peers is absurd. And I think that relying on having a cell phone as a substitute for responsible adult supervision is irresponsible. Giving a child a cell phone in order to keep in touch and for circumstances such as you describe make sense; we've given our oldest daughter one of our cell phones so she can contact us when she needs a ride after rehearsal or some other such thing.

But really, to bring it back to the initial topic, marketing phones to kids younger than tweens? Why in the world would they need cell phones?

I completely agree with you. It's absolutely a personal parenting decision. But I personally think that giving a child a cell phone because they *have* to have one in order to be cool or keep up with their peers is absurd.

It doesn't end at cell phones. There will always be kids that have something your kids don't. $100 jeans, laptops, ipods, wii, the list goes on and on. I tell my kids, you will always be able to find someone that has more than you and someone that has less.

It doesn't end at cell phones. There will always be kids that have something your kids don't. $100 jeans, laptops, ipods, wii, the list goes on and on. I tell my kids, you will always be able to find someone that has more than you and someone that has less.

Indeed, you're right. I give my kids the same sage advice!